UM to form part of the 'European Universities' initiative

Successful bid by the University of Malta to form part of the 'European Universities' initiative

The University of Malta is proud to have been chosen to form part of the first 17 'European Universities' alliances, announced today by the European Commission.

UM submitted an application as part of a 6-member consortium, led by the University of Cádiz, Spain, and comprising the University of Kiel, Germany; Western Brittany, France; Split, Croatia; and Gdansk, Poland; along with UM. All six are coastal universities, deeply imbricated with the sea: indeed, the consortium’s focus is on marine and maritime matters. The six institutions came together to form the European University of the Seas. This project, which was competing with 54 other proposals involving some 300 higher education institutions, was given the green light by the European Commission following an evaluation carried out by a team of independent external experts including rectors, professors and researchers specifically appointed for this task.

This is the first project of its kind that will form alliances among European universities. The University of Malta will benefit from increased mobility of students and staff as the initiative will enhance the quality, inclusiveness and competitiveness of European higher education.

University of Malta Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella, welcomed the news that UM has been successful with its proposal at its first attempt and has thus been selected to form part of this prestigious platform of 'European Universities'. The announcement comes at the time when UM is celebrating its 250th anniversary since its foundation as a public university. Furthermore, it also demonstrates that the University of Malta can pitch in with its own expertise and research acumen to match top educational institutions across the EU.

The alliance which has been named Sea-EU, The European University of the Seas, will receive up to €5 million over the next three years. The Commission has voted €85 million for these 17 pilot projects.

The decision to introduce this innovative concept, suggested by French President Emanuel Macron, was taken by EU leaders ahead of the Gothenburg Social Summit in November 2017.

In its letter announcing the award to SEA-EU, the European Commission wrote: "... the higher education community in Europe is waiting to be inspired by your European University. We ask you to act as a role model for other higher education institutions and to disseminate, as much as possible, lessons learnt and best practices."